Hot blast enemy or friend

[Cpeder]

Whelp I broke down and bought the tundra just a bit ago. Should have it before Friday to my surprise. I cleaned my chimney today after only a month of burning with the hotblast pos, and that made my mind up then and there. Way to much creosote even tho I burn as hot as I could. Hopefully this time next week I won't be hearing my propane unit fire and I'll be enjoying burning with a little more ease and confidence. Thanks for all the help!!

 

[newyorker]

good deal

 

[Cpeder]

Now with the new tundra in transit on its way I've read that I need a liner. My chimney is 32" exterior masonry with 8x8 flue. I had had way to much draft. Even the baro set as low as possible stays open durning a normal burn in hot blast. So won't a a 6 inch liner give me more draft?

 

[brenndatomu]

So won't a a 6 inch liner give me more draft?

Well, yes, kinda. The Tundra wastes a lot less heat up the flue, so that 8x8 will cool off and not pull a good draft after the Tundra intake damper closes for a while.
A round 6"liner has an area of ~27 sq. in. vs the ~48" of the 8x8 so the velocity of the flue gasses will be much higher with the 6". That keeps the temp in the chimney up, and therefore the draft. If you have the room to pull it off, insulation on that liner is highly recommended on an exterior chimney. Even if you can only make the 1/4" insulation fit, that will help a lot.

 

[iowa]

3000+ sq foot new home. Kuuma Vaporfire 100. Love it! Wouldn't go any other way. Load at 6am before work. Load @9pm before bed. I only put a partial load in on really cold days (single digits) when I get home from work @5.

 

[johnnylabguy]

This thread has me worked up enough that I'm thinking about an upgrade to a tundra! I have a few things holding me back. One of them is that I dump one of my hot blasts 8" heat ducts straight through a wall into the basement. The other duct is ran into the plenum. I wonder how that would work with the tundra and its thermostat?
Another is We might move to another house in a year or two. Or build a pole barn which I would heat both with an OWB. I'd have one of those kuumas if I knew I were sticking around with an indoor furnace though, Iowa! Nice!

 

[Cpeder]

Take it with. If i move I plan on taking the stove and liner.

 

[johnnylabguy]

Thought about that. If I move, it's going to be somewhere with a bigger shop than where I'm at now. So I think I'd just get an OWB. But the tundra is reasonable enough price that it could stay as a selling feature/loss at my current place too.

Another hurdle I have to get over is something my insurance agent said this past fall about me being "grandfathered in" with my current woodfurnace because I've had it awhile but I'm too far from a fire dept by the new regulations. . I could change agents but he's an old friend and I'd like to support his small town agency if possible. I guess I just need to find out if the tundra would work for me first.

 

[johnnylabguy]

Oh and take plenty of pics of your install! Good luck and Good thread!

 

[Cpeder]

Will do!! Btw ordered from menards Sunday night stove will be delivered tomorrow her in eastern pa. I'm beyond impressed with the fast delivery. Only if my liner was here..

 

[laynes69]

A neighbor was telling me he recently purchased a woodburner for his basement. I said oh yeah and he said it's one of those furnace's from tractor supply. He's had it for a couple weeks or so now and said he has to wake up early or the fire is out in the morning, and he usually has to restart the furnace when he gets home after work. A new custom home, and it's a shame he choose a hotblast. I was telling him about our furnace, and the Tundra which sparked curiosity. I have a feeling he will be switching.

 

[brenndatomu]

You sure see a lot of those hotblast type furnaces for sale on CL. If a guy bought a semi load of Tundras and parked out in the TSC parking lot...maybe could save some people a lot of grief, not to mention being in the doghouse with the lil lady for buying a wood gobblin boat anchor!

 

[flotek]

I know I don't miss playing Boy Scout with my old furnace . When I come home the last thing I want to do is house chores and starting a fire from scratch sucks .

 

[Jakers]

i suddenly regret my stove purchasing decision two years ago... it was an upgrade but i now realize how much better there is out there

 

[blades]

EDUCATION IS EXPENSIVE _ ya got the T shirt also

 

[Whitespider]

A neighbor was telling me he recently purchased a woodburner... ...he has to wake up early or the fire is out in the morning, and he usually has to restart the furnace when he gets home after work. A new custom home, and it's a shame he choose a hotblast.

There has to be more to it than just being a Hotblast...
Just out'a curiosity... did he install it himself, connect return air, install proper back draft dampers and whatnot??

I have a friend that heats an old two-story home with a Hotblast... it's one of the larger models with the sliding damper/baffle in the top of the box like my DAKA. He works at a wood products factory and brings home scrap, a lot of 4x4, that's all he burns in it. He has no problem gettin' 8 hour overnight heating unless it's sub-zero and blowin' outside, and there's always enough coals to get it goin' again. Both he and his wife work days, the house is empty for about 10-11 hours a day. He's admitted there's a few times when it's nasty cold out the house will be in low-60's when he gets home... but he just rakes the coals a bit and tosses in some of that scrap, no playin' boy scout.

And I (or he) sure-in-heck wouldn't call it a...

wood gobblin boat anchor!

His fuel consumption ain't all that bad considerin' the size of the house.
*

 

[laynes69]

There has to be more to it than just being a Hotblast...
Just out'a curiosity... did he install it himself, connect return air, install proper back draft dampers and whatnot??

I have a friend that heats an old two-story home with a Hotblast... it's one of the larger models with the sliding damper/baffle in the top of the box like my DAKA. He works at a wood products factory and brings home scrap, a lot of 4x4, that's all he burns in it. He has no problem gettin' 8 hour overnight heating unless it's sub-zero and blowin' outside, and there's always enough coals to get it goin' again. Both he and his wife work days, the house is empty for about 10-11 hours a day. He's admitted there's a few times when it's nasty cold out the house will be in low-60's when he gets home... but he just rakes the coals a bit and tosses in some of that scrap, no playin' boy scout.

And I (or he) sure-in-heck wouldn't call it a...

His fuel consumption ain't all that bad considerin' the size of the house.
*

It's just factory. The furnace your talking about is different, no bypass. He probably isn't filling it, but it's hooked up to the chimney, currently dumping air into the basement. It's all manual, no thermostat, nothing else. It's pretty much the same thing I've heard from various owners of the furnace.

 

[Whitespider]

It's just factory. ...currently dumping air into the basement.

So then he's not using it as it was designed to be used?
Rather than using it as an add-on furnace to heat his livin' area to 70-73°, he's using it as a big-azz smoke dragon stove w/blower to heat his basement, hopin' the heat will somehow find it's way upstairs?? Probably heating that basement to something like 90° (give-or-take)?? And he wonders why any sort of acceptable performance is lacking??

This ain't a dig on you laynes69... but I just haf'ta point something out.
In another recent thread that's gone 18 pages now, where I've posted about poor performance of an elitist stove, it's been pointed out over and over and over again that it ain't the stove, or the firebox design at fault... I'm at fault because I wasn't using it as designed‼ And here's a thread where a smoke dragon box is performing poorly, yet even though it ain't being used as designed... the box is a "wood gobbling boat anchor" because of it's poor design. (Heck, no one even bothers to ask how it was being used, or what fuel it's being fed, or...)

Can anyone else see the subjective, bias, prejudiced, narrow-mided, double-standard here?? Or am I the only one??
No one has even asked the OP about installation particulars, or operation particulars. His experiences haven't been questioned in the least. Everyone just nods their collective heads... "Yep, that Hotblast is one crappy POS‼" (OK... not everyone) Not a single negative Hotblast comment from other posters has received even the slightest scrutiny... not even a question (except one from me). And post #8 in this thread has been totally ignored as though it didn't exist...

I have had my hot blast for three winters now, and find burning good dry to well seasoned oak will heat my living/work space for 8 to 12 solid hours @-10 with an equal wind...... no complaints for free!!

Friggin' unbelievable‼
And I'm the guy they ask to "give it a rest"
*

 

[Whitespider]

It's all manual, no thermostat, nothing else.

By-the-way I just got of the phone with my friend Sven (yeah, he's a Swede)... his don't have the sliding damper/baffle. I thought I remembered it did when I helped him move it into his basement a few years ago... I was wrong, it's the wood only Model 1400 w/twin blowers. He said he runs the thermostatic control most of the time on "low" setting, rarely on "medium" setting, and only during extreme cold... ain't none of them "all manual" according to the web site.
*

 

[laynes69]

I didn't say it won't heat, he has a 300,000 dollar custom home, only a few years old. It heats just fine, it supplements the geothermal system. His complaint was burn time and amount of wood it burns. As mentioned, a common complaint from other owners of those furnaces, me being one of them. I probably could have seen 12 hours, I didn't want a chimney fire. Marathon burns aren't worth my family's safety. I tried to burn clean with our old furnace, only to find a bucket full of creosote.